Braunvieh
History
In 1987, Christopher Havenga started his Braunvieh stud with six cows and a bull that he bought from Jan de Kock of Vrede and Chris Blumenthal of Luckhoff. He looked at many breeds before making up his mind, and found the Braunvieh to be the best dual-purpose breed, giving him enough milk and good meat. He needs the milk for his own household and the 25 labourers on his farm.
Christopher uses an extensive system in which the cows calve on their own in the harsh Karoo veld. The heifers are the only ones that get some special attention at calving time - they are brought close to the house in case they experience difficulties. This year, only one heifer need assistance with calving. "The Braunvieh adapts to the Karoo very well," says Christopher. He has settled his stud at a size of 50 breeding cows.
CDH Cattle focuses on the following attributes in order to breed successfully:
Quality Over Quantity
"Performance testing is very important," says Christopher. "I need to know the actual figures of each bull so that I can know what I'm working with. If you don't know and you can't act." He has a very strict selection process, striving for the best at all times. His best bulls are performance tested at Glen Agricultural College. "I would rather sell fewer bulls, but top-quality ones, than lots of poor bulls. There is competition between Braunvieh breeders and from other breeders, so I strive to provide the market with top-quality animals at all times."
Record Keeping and Management
All Christopher's calves are weighed at birth, as well as the mothers, so the birth percentage can be calculated. Ideally, the calf should not weigh more than 7% of the mother's mass when born. At weaning, calf and mother are weighed again. The calf should have at least 50% of the mother's mass at weaning - the average in the Braunvieh breed is 52.4%, and in Christopher's herd the average is 58%. Christopher weans his calves from their mothers when they are 205 days old and gets an average calf mass of 270kg - straight from the veld. The heifers are weighed again at 12 months, and if growth has not been good enough they are culled - they must weigh 320kg at 12 months. Christopher uses best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) figures to select replacements that will contribute toward genetic improvement. He places a huge emphasis on figures but says they're not everything - there must be a balance between conformation, correctness and figures to breed a top animal. "Over the years I have used only the best semen available. The first bull that made an impact on the herd was the Taurus bull Sonneskyn Amanda Dufur. I also imported semen from Switzerland, the US and Brazil, and found that the American bulls are best suited to the conditions in the Karoo. They are more dual-purpose animals, which is what I need."
Excellent Performance
The bull Christopher Rick was bred from an outstanding mother line. His grandmother is 17 years old and has had 15 calves. She is still on the farm and in calf. Rick's mother, CDH 0014, was the Junior Champion in Bloemfontein in 2002. She has an incredible intercalving period of 371 days and has had three calves. Her mother was Junior and Breed Champion in Hopetown, and Interbreed and Junior Champion in Bloemfontein in 1997. Rick's sire, CDH 0015, was the first Silver Merit bull that Christopher bred and tested. He comes out of the same top cow family. CDH 0015 was sold to Willem du Toit of Namibia for R20 000 in 2002. He was a show bull that did well in the herd and is still being used for breeding in Namibia. He was also Junior Champion in Kuruman. CDH 0015 was selectively mated to CDH 0014 (Rick's mother) to improve length, capacity and width. It was a well-calculated decision to pair these two animals, and Rick was the happy outcome. He is a long, wide, muscular bull that, experts agree, has one of the best hind quarters seen on a Braunvieh bull. His feed conversion is phenomenal - he uses 1kg less feed to put on 1kg of meat and is miles ahead of the other bulls that were tested with him. Rick and his brother Christopher Tinsley, a Silver Merit bull, will both be on sale in April next year at the Vryburg Show.
